Name: Ivan Ilyich
Date of Death: April 29, 1825
Place of Death: Petersburg, Russia
Age: 45
Cause: Unknown ailment
His life: Ivan Ilyich worked as a judge at the Law Court building in Petersburg, Russia. Ivan, who lived a life not practicing or recognizing the existential principles, only realized during his final days he should have perhaps lived his life differently. Prior to that, he based his life on what was supposedly looked at as "the right thing to do." According to anonymous sources, Ivan spent most of his time and money on things that would make him look good, rather than things he really needed. Professionals gather that this need for material objects is an attempt to escape alienation. Also, according to members of Ivan's family, towards the final stage of death, Ivan was physically alive or existed before he had an essence. It was as if the life was sucked out of him. One of the reasons believe to have spurred Ivan's realization about life is his ultimate encounter with nothingness. No matter what Ivan wanted to know, there was never an answer. He did not know why he was dying, he did not understand the way of mortal death, he did not know why people were not bieng up from with him about his illness, and he did not understand how all his possessions ended up amounting to nothing. Through all of these unanswered questions, he underwent fear and trembling. Prior to this, he never realized he was actually going to die. Instead, he tried to avoid death by referring to it as "It," and be telling himself "It" would never come. Ivan Ilyich had a wife and two children who may or may not miss him greatly depending on their personal views of their late relative.
~Nadia Aires
~Laura-Ashley Olson
Name: Gregor Samsa
Date of Death: August 18th, 1915
Place of Death: Prague, Germany
Age: 20
Cause: Suffered an apple wound
His life: Gregor Samsa lived at home with his meother, father, and his younger sister Grete. The only reason why Gregor lived at home was so that he could work and help his parents pay off the many debts that they owed. One morning, Gregor wakes up and finds himseld turned into a bug. Even after Gregor discovers this, all he worries about is catching the 7:00 train and getting to work on time. As soon as Gregor's family finds out about him being a bug, they alienate themselves from Gregor, and want nothing to do with him. His parents even keep him locked up in his room. He is also alienated from society. Once he is a bug, Gregor stays in his house all day has nothing to do with the oustide world. Gregor goes through fear and trembling when he starts to become alienated from his younger sister. Gregor loves his sister Grete very much and wants to stay as close to her as possible. After he turns into a bug, however, Grete wants less to do with him, and this hurts Gregor. When he became a bug, he was less "whole"; away from Nature. Gregor has never been a bug before and had no idea how to live and act the way a normal bug acts. Gregor could not survive the life of a bug because he was not used to it. Gregor experiences existence before essence. He goes through this because his family is not seeing his existence. They don't know the Gregor they used to know as really being there, all they see is the bug. Especially Gregor's father, who threw apples at him and caused him to suffer and die.
~Nicole Dillahunt
